


First Encounter

by Veero



Series: Hero Cáfe [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Coffee Shops, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Fluff, Fun, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Tim Drake is Red Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:00:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23643493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veero/pseuds/Veero
Summary: Sometimes after a long ragged day of crime fighting, the Bat Colony can't help but decide to unwind by heading to their local coffee shop.Here's a collection of small one-shots of the workers' experience with dealing with a lost Bat every now and then.Each meeting more memorable then the last.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd
Series: Hero Cáfe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702135
Comments: 4
Kudos: 107





	First Encounter

The wind was bristling outside. Swiping at her coat causing her to shiver as the frost air nipped at her face. The beanie on her head barely managed to keep her hair together as she ran to the door.

Heels clicking with each step. She hated the cold. Dreaded it with all her heart, and Gotham was always full of this bitter coldness being right on the ocean.

A hard desire of wanting to be on the hot beaches of California, sand on her toes and sun rays warming up her face flooded her mind.

Running her hands together, she shoved open the door which was ice to the touch.

"Afternoon Jenny!" A voice called out from the other side of the store. 

Filled with warmth, Jenny stood there for a second, absorbing the heat and reveling in it before pulling her coat off.

"Don't be daft Kaiden, it's the middle of the night." She grumbled as she walked towards the back room to place her coat and start her night shift.

Kaiden rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Other job at the market still running you ragged?"

Holding in the internal scream, she settled for a loud groan, "Yesssss." Before tying her apron. Just like many other Gothamites who dared to live in the overpriced city, she worked two jobs just to get by. She dropped her wild dream of becoming a journalist and going to college for creative writing, to help her family who struggled more and more to get by.

She had picked up this job at a coffee shop owned by a family friend.

Kaiden's father had started the small quaint little shop and has kept it going since. 

Jenny was so grateful to have Kaiden as a friend. He worked in the shop himself, keeping in the family business. It was him who had told her about the spot opening in the shop.

God bless his soul.

"Feel up for a game of latte art?" Kaiden perked up as he waved a cup around. 

Tempting.

"Maybe latte-r." She snorted smugly before grabbing a broom for busywork. "What kind of people get coffee this late at night?" 

Sitting himself on one of the clean counters, Kaiden shrugged his shoulders, tossing his cup in the air with a flip and catching it. "Tired business people mostly, the occasional shifty-looking guy– Kaiden trailed off and glanced around skeptically– sometimes a bat or two." The small grin on his face made him look like a scheming elf on Christmas.

"Yeah right." She snorted, "You're full of shit Kaiden."

"I'm not kidding!" The man hollered out with a tight frown.

"Just like that time, you said you were friends with Robin." She dragged out as she steadied the broom and rested her arm against it.

"I'm serious! You'll see!" 

"You've been saying that for the last week and a half, still no bat. I was hoping I'd at least get—"

The bell from the shop's door gave off a dainty little chime as chill air clashed with the warmth.

A boy's voice followed the soft hymns which were nothing like the gentle tune. 

He was obnoxiously loud as his footsteps grew closer, grudgingly stomping if anything. 

"Fucken Hood, come in here and get your own shit— the boy bickered– Move out the way harlot!" 

That had Jenny snapping to attention, turning around to face the owner of the voice only to find her eyes widening in shock.

Robin, Batman's Robin was standing there with an all too tight frown for a child, brows pressed together tightly as he scrunched his nose at her in disdain.

Scoffing, the boy moved around her and continued to the counter as if she was a pebble in his path. "Who's the crazy girl?" 

"She's a new employee my dad hired about two weeks ago." Kaiden smiled kindly as he began grabbing cups, "You and who?"

Jenny eyed the kid and then looked at Kaiden with an offended gaze, "Crazy girl?" 

Hastily, Robin cracked back around and stared at her straight in the eyes with those blank white lenses. Even though the boy was much shorter then herself, the energy he sent made it feel as if he was looking down at her. 

He placed his hands on his waist and made a titting noise. "Your hair is absolutely atrociously appalling as if you decided to fight with a tree and failed miserably you buffoon. And the way you stared at me when I first came in is repulsive, you don't see me gawking at you like a lunatic." The boy all but grimaced as he turned back around, "Me, Hood, and Wing." He added in a much gentler tone addressing Kaiden now.

Kaiden said nothing about the hero's attitude simply nodded his head and went to work as the boy took a seat.

Jenny stood there in utter shock for a few seconds before Kaiden was asking for her help making the drinks. Telling her how each one, each vigilante liked their coffee, Robin strictly getting hot chocolate, Nightwing's direct orders. 

Something about the boy being bad enough without all the caffeine, him and his swords, whatever that meant.

"What did Hood do this time?" Kaiden asked casually, not deterred by the kid's attitude and Jenny stiffened at the question believing the boy would snap. He was sitting in his seat casting such an angered vibe.

Amazing how a child could appear so wound up and outraged. She guessed he wasn't your average kid either.

"It is about what he is going to do!" Robin seethed as Kaiden placed a cup of hot cocoa down, little marshmallows floating on the top. "He thinks I don't know what he's doing –he paused taking a small sip before continuing– but I'm the fucken son of Batman! The world's greatest detective! It's laughable what he concludes I don't notice."

"Hood as in Red Hood." Her mind was a muck still trying to grasp what is happening. Trying to fathom the idea that yes, this is Robin in Kaiden's father's coffee shop at the dead of night.

"Yes crazy girl, don't add a dumb girl to the mix," Robin added bitterly.

Kaiden was fiddling with a few of the shakers as he got to the root of the boy's temper, "So Hood–"

And the young boy was quick to pick up his rant again, "He's been trying to woo Nightwing!" Robin squeezed his cup so tightly with clenched teeth, the paper cup crumpled and spilled over his gloved hand and onto the table. Marshmallows pulling out as well like an overflowing fishbowl.

Woo Nightwing?

"The bastard thinks I can't see through his act, well he's wrong! And my brother will never fall for such a failure! The very thought is laughable, Nightwing has a type and Red Hood does not fit it." Robin glared at his cup as if that harmless beverage had been his sworn enemy and drive to fight the scum of Gotham.

"How do you know he's trying to woo your brother?" Jenny asked a little more gentle and the kid seemed to ease up on his once hot chocolate.

"Damn fool has been trying to get rid of me all night! –some hard realization must have hit him because his voice grew angrier by the tenfold, if looks could kill, Red Hood would have a field day with the youngest bat– Probably harassing Nightwing as we speak!" The cup in his hand ended up being thrown across the room smacking a blank wall and spraying hot chocolate. 

Jenny gaped at him in shock, taken back by the fit and looked at Kaiden who seemed completely okay with it all. 

"I swear I am going to kill that sorry excuse of a zombie and make him wish he never dug his way out of his grave, rolling around to wither away and rot like a good corpse if he even laid a finger on him!" 

He was on his feet as Kaiden was placing another hot chocolate in front of him. Making three drinks standing in front of the vigilante with a quick temper.

Snatching them up Robin glanced around the room, to the puddle on the table and the mess on the wall. "I apologize for the mess and my outburst." With that he turned around, cape swiping behind him as he pulled up his hood and took for the door.

A gust of cool wind and he was gone.

"Unbelievable!" Jenny finally gasped as she stared at the door.

"What did I tell you?" Kaiden gave her a smug look as he grabbed some paper towels to start cleaning up the spilled hot chocolate. 

"Does he do that a lot? Throw a fit?" She still hadn't moved, but now had her head turning to Kaiden with a curious expression. A brow raised eagerly to know.

"He's much more pleasant with Nightwing around, but yeah, he's normally like– that." Was as graceful as Kaiden could put it without calling the kid a total prick. The thing about calling Robin a prick, the half-pint could totally beat his ass.

"You've met Nightwing?! Well damn, I guess I owe you an apology for all those years of teasing. Guess you really do know the bats." Jenny gaped wildly and gave a content sigh.

"Yup, now quit standing there and go clean up that mess– he gestured to the forgotten cup and hot cocoa remains on the floor and wall– we still have a job to do."

She went to grab a mop. 

So this part-time job is going to be a little more interesting.


End file.
